Santa Monica police bust a thief who stole a $1,250 bike when the owner left it unlocked outside a restaurant. Which is sort of like leaving your laptop or smartphone on the sidewalk, and trusting it will be there when you get back.

After someone stole a British woman’s bicycle, she just stole it back. Even though this turned out okay, it’s always best to let the police handle it; there have been several cases that didn’t end as well.

Now that’s more like it. A British judge sentences a drunk hit-and-run driver who seriously injured a 16-year old bike rider to three years in jail, and revokes his license for more than eleven years, while calling for stiffer penalties for hit-and-run drivers.

As you may know, this site has long been a supporter of local bike shops.

So starting today, we’re putting a dollar figure on that support, with our first-ever sale on ad space.

Through the end of this month, BikinginLA will be offering deep discounts on our usual advertising rates just for local bike shops, or other small businesses in the bike industry. For more information, or to find out if your business qualifies, email the address on the Support and Advertising page.

I’m not normally a fan of the visibility arms race — any driver actually paying attention to the road should be able to see a cyclist without making us dress up like brilliantly lit dystopian clowns — it does promise to combine practicality with safety.

And while I’m more of a messenger bag guy, I’ll look forward trying this out and letting you know what I think.

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Nice piece from the Racers Who Ride Foundation, as pro racer Ozz Negri, Jr. discusses his love of bicycling and what #peaceontheroad is all about.

Way to kill a burgeoning bike movement. Sales for pedal-assist ebikes have plummeted in Malta after the country required helmets and registration. That should serve as fair warning for those of us here in the US.

Orange County cyclist Bob Masuzumi writes that he was riding south on the trail with a small group of riders between Wardlow Road and Los Alamitos Blvd, just before a bridge that crosses a secondary creek next to the high school.

As he tells it,

The rider in the lead didn’t realize the trail, which is poorly marked, curved away from the creek and that you had to cross the creek using the bridge. Unfortunately, he rode off the trail and ended up at the bottom of Coyote Creek, sustaining a serious concussion resulting in 3 days in the ICU. He was then transferred to their rehab facility from which he should be released tomorrow. However, he will continue to receive therapy as an out-patient for an unknown length of time.

I believe that not only does it need proper markings, but there should be a fence extending from the bridge past the curve, so that other riders do not make the same mistake. Also, a fence needs to be added on the other side of the bridge. Currently, a rider, after crossing the bridge, needs to make a 90 degree right turn, otherwise they will end up going down the embankment toward the high school. This area does not seem to be very safe for cyclists at all & we believe should be corrected to prevent anything similar happening to another cyclist.

I can’t say I’m familiar with the area, even though we’ve discussed problems on the trail before. Including the fact that Los Alamitos has failed to adequately maintain its section of the pathway.

But if you know the part of the trail he’s talking about, what do you think?

Is this as dangerous as it sounds, and does it need corrective measures — or at least a warning sign to comply with state law regarding known dangers on off-road trails?

And is anyone familiar with any other riders who may have been hurt there?

We learned, for example, that a much higher percentage of fatal crashes than expected — 40% of fatal crashes with a reported collision type — were “hit from behind” incidents — that’s important to know for our education program. Not surprisingly, high-speed urban and suburban arterial streets with no provisions for bicyclists are an over-represented location — representing 56% of all bicyclist fatalities — that’s good information to share with our Bicycle Friendly Community partners.

We found important new information about why crashes happen, how they are reported, and the scope of enforcement actions taken against motorists — including common felonies charged and average sentences for 77 convictions related to bicyclist fatalities

Overwhelmingly, however, we were struck by the lack of information, the lack of action, and the lack of a sense of outrage over these deaths, even in communities where this kind of tragedy is relatively common.

It’s something I plan to dive into over the next few days. Because the better we understand how and why these tragedies occur, the more we can do to prevent them.

Metro honors Sweeyoke Ooi for their monthly Why We Ride series. Because, as they say, Bike Week never ends for many Angelenos. And they offer photos from their Bike Week Guided Ride Day, which evidently did. End, that is.

The Times astutely notes that it’s time to retire the myth that Los Angeles has a love affair with cars, despite what our state’s senior Senator says.

Rick Risemberg attends Sunday’s Reinventing the Wheel: the Future of Mobility in LA sponsored by Santa Monica public radio station KCRW and finds it sadly auto-focused. And out of beer.

Caught on video: A British Columbia cop goes on trial for punching a handcuffed cyclist in the face. Since when do bike riders get arrested — let alone punched — for not wearing a helmet and allegedly running a red light?

Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich injures two people in a three car crash while driving drunk at 20 kilometers over the speed limit. Then tries to pass it off by saying it could happen to anyone. Uh, no. Only someone stupid and careless enough to get behind the wheel after drinking.

According to the following email I received from Fullerton cyclist Colin Campbell, the bike path is going to be closed at Alondra Drive for the next several years. And if Caltrans bothered to tell anyone in advance, the word didn’t get out to the riders who use it.

After this morning’s ride, I ate a slice of cold pizza and went out to “finish” today’s ride. (I’m in the Strava “Twice the Tour” Challenge, in which riders must ride double the miles of the Tour of California, or 1479 miles, during May.)

I’ve been trying to find out how long the Coyote Creek bike trail would be closed around Alondra, I-5, and Firestone. Last Friday I rode up to the closure from the south, and I couldn’t find anyone to talk to. Over the weekend, I searched on the Internet and read about the I-5 widening and improvement project from the Orange County line to I-605. What I read said that there were seven smaller projects, one of which is at Coyote Creek and Alondra. This project has just started, and is schedule to complete sometime in 2015.

So today, I rode across Rosecrans and headed south. Just past the Alondra underpass, I found people, who directed me to the contractor’s construction office at the corner of Alondra and Freeway Dr, just east of Coyote Creek. I was able to speak with Mark, the project manager.

He gave me a short overview of the project, and the bad news – the trail will likely be closed for at least a couple of years. It has already been filled with dirt so that equipment can access the strip of land between the creek and the trail, where 36-inch piles will be sunk 100 feet to support the new I-5 bridge. I-5 is going to be raised about six feet, and Alondra about 10 feet above where they are today. So eventually, the trail may head through there “at grade”, rather than being sunk several feet. (This is just my guess, nothing I was told.)

For now, there are signs at Artesia and at Rosecrans advising riders that the trail is closed. It is possible to ride south to the swap meet (old drive-in theater) and exit onto Alondra. However, at some point, Alondra will be closed while it is rebuilt 10 feet higher. From there, ride east to Valley View, and take Valley View south to Artesia to reenter the trail southbound.

It is also possible to ride north to Firestone, follow Firestone southeast under Valley View, turn right, then right again, and take Valley View north past the closure (most likely to Rosecrans for most riders).

The bottom line is that the Coyote Creek trail is lost to us for a good while, and we should get used to using other routes. And of course, the other bottom line is that no one in Caltrans thought to inform the cycling community of this “minor” impact….

In a follow-up email, Campbell talks a little more about the closure and apparent lack of notice, and notes that parts of the trail that remain open are in need of repair.

In short, the trail was closed as part of the improvement project on Interstate 5 from the Orange County line to Interstate 605. I understand that closure of the trail was necessary, but I’m a little sad that Caltrans apparently did nothing to tell cyclists about the closure or the duration thereof. I suppose that several hundred riders use the trail daily, while about 178,000 vehicles travel I-5 each day. I am a little bit hopeful that some planning can be done to reopen the trail sooner than the project manager indicated.

One thing I didn’t mention in my e-mail below is that the Coyote Creek trail has been repaved along most of its length, except for about four miles in Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, and Los Alamitos. Part of the trail is breaking up, leaving the surface narrowed and rough. LA County DPW tells me that the cities along the trail built it and are responsible for maintenance. I haven’t yet tried to find out if improvements are in their plans.

After all, we non-bicyclists contribute monies, through our taxes, which pay for all of those never-ending miles and miles of bicycle paths, bicycle lanes, bicycle markings and other alleged “safety measures.” Presently, bicycle riders are getting a “free ride.” Bicyclists are the only group who share the road but don’t pay their fair share.

Evidently, she’s aware of a lot more never-ending miles of bikeways than than the rest of us. Which makes me wonder just where the hell Orange County is hiding them.

She also complains about “older, leisure-time bicycle riders” who dress up in too-tight clothes and an “all-too-common case of road rage.” In fact, she goes so far as to call for banning any cyclists over the age of 65 from riding on public streets.

No, seriously.

I never knew road rage was something you could wear. Then again, I also didn’t know it was possible to meander aggressively. Or that cyclists put drivers of cars, SUVs and trucks in peril.

I must have missed all those stories about careless, distracted and/or aggressive cyclists slamming into SUVs and killing or maiming the drivers. Evidently, it must happen a lot, and we can only thank her for bringing it to our attention.

I know I, for one, will immediately pack away my spandex so as not to threaten or offend innocent motorists such as herself. Even if I still have a few good years left before I can expect to lose all control over my bike and body after crossing that magical 65-year old threshold.

Especially since she thinks the sharrows and bike lanes that we demand others pay for only make drivers more impatient and aggressive. And make it our own damn fault if we get doored and thrown in front of oncoming traffic.

She concludes that if we really insist on having such life-threatening bikeways, we should be forced to pay the exorbitant construction costs ourselves.

Finally, one more reason to pass pedestrians with the same margin you’d expect from drivers, as a Pennsylvania man pulls out a gun and shoots at a cyclist who brushed against him. And just in time for Bike to Work Day, the father of Vehicular Cycling seems to suggest that Complete Streets are a fraud, and nothing can be done to encourage people to switch from cars to bikes; thanks to Christopher Kidd for the link.